Nothing We Were Ever Trained For
by Allmyshipshavesunk
Summary: When Natasha finds out she's pregnant and breaks up with her boyfriend all in the same day she turns to her best friend, Clint Barton. AU where none of them are superheroes, they're all just normal people. May include the rest of the team but definitely Clint/Natasha centric.
1. Chapter 1

*Ding Dong*  
Clint Barton reluctantly tore his attention from the game, hauled himself to his feet, and headed towards the door.  
"Just a second." He called as he dug through a drawer for cash to pay the pizza guy.  
"So that's $12.50 right?" He asked as he opened the door to his apartment, his attention on counting out change. He extended his hands to exchange the money for his dinner and blinked in surprise. "You aren't a pizza."  
Natasha smiled but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "Nice to see you too Clint. Can I come in?"  
Clint stepped back to let her by, "Oh yeah, of course. Can I get you a drink? I still have some of that vodka you like." He shut and locked the door before heading towards his tiny kitchen.  
Natasha followed and perched awkwardly on a bar stool, idly fiddling with her ring. "No thanks, I uh, well I'll explain later."  
Clint narrowed his gaze, Natasha never turned down vodka and she never fidgeted. "What's wrong?"  
Natasha smiled nervously, "Uh, there's not really an easy way to say this so I guess I'll just come right out with it. I'm pregnant."  
Clint nearly dropped the beer he'd just taken from the fridge, those were not words he ever imagined coming from Natasha Romanoff. "You, you're," he stuttered, "Uh, that's great Nat, I'm really happy for you. What did Alexei say? Is he excited to be a dad?" Clint popped the top from his drink and took a seat, after a shock like that he needed both.  
"He uh," her laugh was bitter, "he told me it was him or the kid, that I couldn't have both."  
Clint bit back a curse, he'd never been Alexei's biggest fan but he'd thought the guy had a bit more class than that. "What did you tell him?"  
"I threw the newspaper at him, told him to check the listings because he was going to be needing a new place to stay." Natasha gave him a mischievous smile, "He's totally gonna have a black eye."  
Clint chuckled, Natasha certainly did have good aim, with just about anything.  
"But it wasn't just the baby Clint, it was that he would act like that, give me an ultimatum." Her expression was a mix of disbelief and hurt. "He wouldn't even discuss it with me. Aren't couples supposed to do that? Aren't they supposed to be willing to listen to each other and compromise, but he wouldn't even try."  
Natasha sniffed and Clint realized she was crying, this presented two problems; one Natasha didn't cry, at least not in front of him, and two he didn't know what to do with tears.  
"Maybe I should just do it Clint, I'm not cut out to be a mom. I couldn't keep a cactus alive Clint! A freaking cactus! How am I supposed to take care of a kid? And how on earth am I supposed to do it all by myself?" She wiped the tears from her face roughly, new ones quickly replacing them. "Alexei and I had something good together, why should I just give it up over one argument?"  
Clint took her hands gently in one of his and used the other to tilt her face up to look him in the eye. "Hey, listen to me okay? I am with you in this, one way or another, so I just have one question for you; do you want this baby? Don't worry about Alexei or any of that, just think about what you really want. Okay?"  
Natasha nodded.  
"So, do you want this baby?"  
Natasha smiled, "Yeah, I do."  
The side of Clint's mouth quirked up in a grin, "Then it looks like we're having a baby."

"We?" Natasha smiles softly.  
Clint squeezed her hand, "Yeah, we."


	2. Chapter 2

"What about this one? She looks nice." Clint leaned towards Natasha and tilted his tablet towards her, displaying the profile of a local obstetrician.  
Natasha looked over the page with a frown, "I don't know, she looks really young, I don't want someone fresh out of med school."  
"Says here she graduated from John's Hopkins five years ago in the top ten percent of her class, and she's been practicing here in Portland ever since."  
Natasha quirked an eyebrow, "Are you suggesting her because you think she's actually a good choice or because she's cute?"  
The young man smiled cheekily, "Both." He sobered, "Seriously, she gets really good reviews on all of these sites and it's only one visit, if you don't like her you don't need to go back, we'll just find someone else."  
Natasha sighed and sank back further into the cushions, "Yeah you're right, I'll call her office tomorrow, its too late to do it tonight. In fact I should probably head home." Despite her words Natasha didn't make any move to get up.  
"Is everything okay Tasha?" Clint questioned softly.  
The redhead waited a moment before answering him in a voice so soft he almost couldn't hear her, her eyes staring straight ahead, "Can I stay here tonight? I can't seem to fall asleep in my apartment, I see Alexei everywhere and I really don't want to think about him right now."  
Clint smiled, "Of course, and tomorrow we'll go through and box up all of his stuff, kick him out once and for all."  
"Thanks," Natasha smiled gratefully, "but I'm thinking about just finding a new place. I never even liked that apartment to be honest, the view sucks, the kitchen is too small to actually cook anything, the landlord still hasn't fixed the plumbing, and the neighborhood isn't very safe, definitely not the kind of place I'd want to raise a kid. But Alex insisted, he said that it was perfectly fine and I was just being a picky snob, so I went along with it." The noise Natasha made as she buried her face in a pillow was somewhere between a laugh and a groan, "Oh Clint, what was I thinking? How dense am I for it to take almost two years to realize what a piece of work I was dating?" She laughed and rolled her eyes, "Or maybe I'm the piece of work here."  
"Yep, you're a real piece of work alright."  
Natasha glared and tossed her pillow at Clint's head, "You really know how to cheer a girl up don't you?"  
Clint threw up a hand to deflect the pillow, "I try, but I do mean it. You're a work in progress Nat, you're gonna makes some stupid choices, you know better than anyone how many I've made, but that doesn't make you stupid, it just makes you human."  
Natasha's gaze softened, "Thank you Clint, you really do know just what to say."  
Clint shifted uncomfortably under her praise, "Yeah yeah, we both know I'm amazing, now enough of this serious crap. I was thinking about what you said about an apartment and I was thinking we should get a place together. With two of us we could get a much nicer place than either of us could afford alone, and you shouldn't be alone at the end anyways."  
"Would you really want to do that? I mean, you know people are just going to assume you're the father right?"  
"Yeah I'm sure they will, but I don't really care, a part of me wishes I was." The surprised look on Natasha's face told Clint just what he had implied, "What I mean is, uh, that Alexei didn't deserve you," that was no better, "err, I mean that then the kid would have a dad." He finished lamely, hoping Natasha didn't notice his flushed cheeks. He reached for his tablet, "I'm gonna just gonna shut up and look for a place to live now."  
Natasha rolled her eyes, "You need some mouthwash? Might want to clean your mouth out after sticking your foot in it."  
Clint breathed a sigh of relief, snark was normal, snark he was used to, this serious stuff never seemed to go well for him.  
If Clint had looked up just then, he just might have noticed the wistful smile that flicked across Natasha's face.


End file.
